


Le Torturé

by hedarakoon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 23:39:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21382480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hedarakoon/pseuds/hedarakoon
Summary: A short telling of the events that transpired between the attack on the Potters and the torturing of Alice and Frank Longbottom.
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Darkness was only interrupted by shadows cast by fluttering flames in the fireplace. A dark haired witch sat in solitary silence, the only sound coming from those very same fluttering flames. The crackling sound did nothing to break the concentration of the witch. Her long nails rapped over the wooden armrest of her chair, scratching the surface over and over. 

Waiting. She was waiting with bated breath for word from her Master. Word that he had succeeded. It was the thirty-first of October 1981 and he had gone after Harry Potter in an attempt to defeat a prophecy. 

She’d suggested in front of her peers to go with him. 

_'You dare question my ability?'_

_"Of course not. Never my Lord." And she had shrunk back into herself_. 

She'd nearly begged behind closed doors. 

_"I just do not think it wise, my Lord." Robes fluttering around her frame as she followed behind him, just a few feet, paying no mind to the snake that seemed to try to trip her up. "What if this is a trap?" _

_'While I value your loyalty, Bellatrix, do not doubt my willingness to kill you as well if you interfere.'_

Doubt him, she dared not. She had been on the receiving end of his wand and his curses before. As his protege, she had learned early not to disappoint, not to defy or she would suffer the consequences. 

A some point hours later in the dark of the night, she had risen from her chair, pacing the perimeter of her sitting room. Her heels added to the sound of the crackling fire, but still the room was silent otherwise. And then she froze, the tapping of her feet silenced. She felt it. She felt it as a physical pain. She felt it as if it were her own body, her own soul with which was being torn apart. There was a shift in the air, she could feel it. The way the hairs raised on the back of her neck. It was as if the balance of energy had changed in the width of a second.

She thrived in the darkness and the powerful energy she could always feel as if it were a second skin - the power of her Lord. But suddenly.... suddenly it was not there. 

She stood in frozen silence, searching desperately for anything... anything that would convince her she was wrong... that he wasn't gone. 

But, his energy was just gone. Vanished. As if he had vanished. 

Her mind reeled at the thought. 

No, that couldn't be. He couldn't be gone. It wasn't possible. A baby? A bloody _baby_ could not possibly be his downfall. He was stronger than this, this prophecy, this infant. He was the most powerful wizard she knew. His power put hers to shame and by Merlin's blood she was a force to be reckoned with. 

Her silently racing mind was interrupted by the sound of her husband's voice. 

'Bella... what is it, my love?'

But the look she turned on him was dangerous, icy blue eyes turned to molten steel in the oncoming rage. How could he not feel it too? The absence in the air? She was torn between sobbing and screaming. But no, crying was weakness and she was not weak and so she did the only other thing that felt natural to her. 

"Crucio!" to Rodolphus's credit he was able to stand the damaging curse for far longer than most, he having grown used to the only way his wife knew to cope. That didn't mean Bellarix let up any sooner than his knees hit the ground though, stalking towards her husband as a mountain lion would a fawn it intended to make dinner. 

She knelt in front of him, coming nose to nose with Rodolphus as he panted, trying to regain his breath. "He is gone you fool, don't you feel it?" It was little more than a whisper, but her anger and distress filled each word. 

She was on her feet again before Rodolphus even had time to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Bellatrix hurled herself across the room, throwing open windows that had seen many lifetimes of Lestrange family members. She leaned out of the third story window and for a split second her husband thought she meant to kill her self and he wouldn't put it past her in her state of obvious distress. Just as her wand raised to the sky, painted lips shouting "Morsmorde" skyward, Rodolphus dragged her back from the window by her waist. 

"No!" She shouted, throwing her head back - smirking as the sound of crunching cartilage sounded in her ears, his grip on her instantly loosening. She turned, momentarily distracted from her distress to see blood falling down Rodolphus's face despite his attempt to wipe it away. "Such a shame." She muttered , wiping at the crimson liquid herself, before darting back towards the window to watch the green snake and skull crawl its way across the sky. She would find the Dark Lord if she had to torture the information out of every last auror herself. 


	2. Chapter 2

Cowards. The lot of them. Lucius Malfoy. Evan Rosier. The list could go on. Barty and Rabastan had been the only ones to join Bellatrix and Rodolphus. Only two other people had answered her call. Well, they’d have to deal with the wrath of their master when he returned. 

Over forty-eight hours had passed. No word from the Dark Lord. No further information. Though they had managed to secure one Frank Longbottom. Bellatrix had thought that surely   
Frank would have information as to the Dark Lord’s sudden disappearance. After all the Longbottom child had been the other possibility to the prophecy her master went in search of defeating. But despite their best efforts, despite Bella’s best efforts, Frank had remained tight lipped and refused to give anything away. Even his mind was full of promises of not knowing anything. Lies! Bellatrix knew they were, they just had to be. 

Frank had long since become quiet. No more screams, barely a whimper really in the face of even Rabastan or Rodolphus’s worst Cruciatus. Bellatrix had become bored with him not long after his screams subsided. What fun was torturing someone if they didn’t react? If all they did was whimper like a newborn kitten? No fun, and a waste of energy. 

So, she’d left. Frank might have kept his mouth shut, but would the wife? With a little baby at home? Babies… Disgusting, crying, annoying… they were useless and she certainly didn’t want a child. Though for a short time she might have began to convince herself otherwise, until just like that it was gone. Just like her mind. Just any sense of right and wrong as she appeared with a pop at the end of a dark street. 

The houses were all lined in neat little rows, all the windows darkened except for a few through which you could see the flickering of a fireplace’s flame. Such simplicity. Disgusting she thought as she slowly moved down the street. 

The feline like grace with which she moved leant to the silence that she moved in, unnoticed, towards the Longbottom house, all the way down the street and to the end of the walkway where she paused. A muttered utterance under her breath, an anti-disapparation jinx to keep her prey where she wanted, and then she was on the move again. Up the walk way, just as quietly. A single light shown dimly from a room in the upstairs, drawing Bella’s attention up to it for a fraction of a second before she turned her attention to the door. Three quick rasps upon the hard wood, polite almost, as if waiting to be accepted in, as if anyone would allow Bellatrix Lestrange into their home.

“Oh Alice!” She shouted, her voice carrying a sing-song lilt as she taunted the younger woman, “Let me in, I promise not to bite.” Though she didn’t promise not to main or grievously injure. 

She waited for the width of a breath, two or three ticks on a clock, before blasting her way into the home. "I guess with force it is!" She called as she stepped into the house. A glance around showed her an empty, but quaint living area. Icy eyes turned towards the stairs that lead up the far wall, she had seen a light in the upstairs room after all. “Ohh, Alice. Come out, come out wherever you are.” She called.

A clack followed by another, her feet announcing her slow movements across the room. She rolled her head, smirking as her neck cracked once or twice. A light glinting off of a knick knack as she passed it caught her eye and without a second thought she swiped it to the ground, chuckling as the glass fell and shattered. She kicked at the mess before stepping over it. The sound of a baby’s cry drew her focus once more to the stair case. 

“Oh, a little baby.” Of course she knew it’d be there, probably. Neville Longbottom the other baby boy born in the month of June. Of course he’d be with his mother. She heard feet hurry down the hallway, away from the stairs and towards what Bellatrix could only assume to be the room that belonged to the source of the crying.   
“Mummy dearest!” She took the steps two at a time, throwing herself around the banister, wand at the ready. But the hallway was empty, all the doors closed, not that there were many. The first she kicked in showed a bathroom, the banging sound the door made inciting the infant to cry again. 

“Hush little baby, don’t say a word…” She hummed, turning to the door across the hallway. 

Long fingers reached out to turn the knob, pushing the door open at the same time she flew herself across the doorway. She was not stupid. Alice was a trained Auror, protecting a child, she was not going to come easy. And not easy Alice proved herself to be, a hex thrown a jinx quickly following, but Bellatrix blocked them with ease, stepping back into the doorway. 

“Bella’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.” She taunted, blocking and parrying each of Alice’s thrown spells. “You should have disapparated away.” Bella teased before letting out a cackle and throwing another jinx at the woman. “Oh you can’t.” She spoke followed by “Incarserus!” The glint of glee that graced her face when out of no where ropes appeared and trapped Alice was unmatched. She knew she’d won, the younger witch toppling under the weight of the jinx, so she moved into the room. “I’ve trained with the Dark Lord since I was barely a woman… did you really think you could win?” She asked, kicking the toppled woman as she approached the crib Alice’d been valiantly defending. “Ickle bitty baby. Look at you now… Sorry chap, gonna take your mummy for a little talk. Just a girl talk.” 

She turned back to the woman, rolling her eyes at the sobbing and begging the younger witch was doing. “Oh, I’ll leave the baby alone.” Bella muttered, crouching down to be closer to eye level with the woman, “He doesn’t have the answers I seek.” She shrugged. “Silencio.” She snapped momentarily annoyed by Alice’s begging. “Now, don’t move too much, wouldn’t want to splinch an arm off or worse… your head.” 

—————  
They arrived back at Lestrange Manor where Bellatrix unceremoniously dropped Alice on the hard granite floor of the ballroom. “Incisura.” The raved haired witch spoke, slicing the ropes that bound Alice. She was quick to retrieve the other’s wand, snapping it and throwing it to the side. 

“Now, we can do this the easy way…” She stepped back, one foot then the other, ignoring the sets of eyes that were on her now. “Or the hard way… Crucio!” She wouldn’t leave the hard way to the imagination. She’d just get right to it. She let the screams go on for just a handful of seconds, long enough to appreciate the tone of Alice’s wails of pain, appreciate the way her body bowed before the curse, curling around herself. 

“Now where is the Dark Lord!” She demanded, glaring at the defiance the woman showed by pushing herself into a seated position, but remaining tight lipped. 

“Crucio!” She shouted, wand aimed directly at Alice. A smirk spread across her features as Alice tried unsuccessfully to giving Bellatrix the satisfaction of knowing her curse hurt. The scream that emitted from Alice’s mouth bounced around the room creating a sort of symphony for the off-her-rocker witch. She dragged the curse on for several long moments, reveling in the screams and eventually the contortion of Alice’s body. She contorted in unnatural ways, her muscles and tendons trying to flee from the searing pain, a pain brought on by the intensity of Bellatrix’s anger at the loss of her master. 

“Do you have an answer now?” Bella shrieked, dropping her wand hand for only a moment to allow the woman the barest of chances to answer. 

“I… I don’t know.” Came the whispered reply.

But the answer was not what Bellatrix wanted. “LIES! Crucio!”


	3. Chapter 3

The darkness of night had given rise to a new day. Sunlight streamed through the windows of the grand ballroom - a ballroom never used any longer for its intended purpose - of Lestrange Manor. Bellatrix paced the perimeter of the room, her chest heaving as she drew in deep heavy breaths. Alice Longbottom lay near motionless in a crumpled heap in the middle of the room. 

“She has to know.” It was whispered under the raven haired witch’s breath. “She has to. They did something. They did something to him.” She carried on in the same fashion for another several minutes, talking to herself. She hadn’t slept more than an hour or two since the Dark Lord had disappeared. 

Alice whimpered, drawing Bellatrix’s attention back to her. Bella watched as Alice moved, rolling over to her back before becoming still again, the only sign of life being the rise and fall of her chest. A scowl came over her face and she stalked towards the younger witch, coming to a stop a handful of centimeters from Alice and staring down at her. 

“Now, Alice… You’ve chosen the hard way, would you like to do this the easy way?” She paused for a moment, looking down at the woman. “If you did not do anything, what did the Aurors do with the Dark Lord?” 

When Alice did not answer her, Bellatrix screeched in anger. In an instant she was atop the woman, dagger pulled from somewhere within her skirts. “Tell me!” She bellowed, nose to nose with Alice, dagger digging into the flesh of her cheek. Alice still did not speak, closing her eyes and letting out the smallest of whimpers. All the lack of response did was to further enrage the deranged witch causing her to press the dagger into the woman’s flesh harder, drawing the blade down to watch a thin red line blossom against the otherwise pale cheek, laughing as the whimper became a cry. 

“Such a pity.” Bella seethed in little more than a whisper. “Such pretty pure blood put to such traitorous waste!” The dagger was dropped beside Alice’s head, Bella’s index finger moving to wipe through the blood as it pooled and spilled down Alice’s cheek. 

Bella pushed off of the woman, standing back to her feet, her dagger left forgotten as she paced back across the room. Where was he? How did Frank and Alice not know? They had to know something. Apparently they didn’t call their lives, yes that must be it. They just didn’t care about their lives. Or they cared too much for their stupid cause, a pitiful and sad cause. For there was no greater cause than that of purifying the Wizarding race. 

She returned to Alice’s side a moment later. “Get up.” She demanded, waiting for a fraction of a second before moving to grab the woman by her hair. She yanked the woman up, dragging her body into a kneeling position, caring not for the hair that came away in her hands. “I said get up!” She screeched, loosing the woman’s hair and stepped away from her. 

The raven haired witch watched as the woman swayed, but somehow managed to stay upright. “Last chance…” Bellatrix muttered, bringing her wand to rest in long fingers. “Tell me what you know?!” 

The truth was, Bellatrix knew the woman didn’t know anything. Invading her mind hours before, before she’d become little more than a heap of skin and bones like her husband. She didn’t want to admit it though. There could only be one answer for the fleeting promises of not knowing going through the woman’s mind when Bellatrix delved deep into the all too innocent mind and that answer was that she just had to be lying, even to herself. Alice Longbottom knew something and she was working hard to make sure Bellatrix didn’t find out. 

“Fine!” Bellatrix snapped. “Incisura.” She muttered the jinx, watching as a fresh line of vibrant red spear across Alice’s face. “Incisura!” She slashed down with her wand, relishing in the scream it elicited as a cut dragged down Alice’s arm, spilling blood in its wake. The woman crumpled against the floor again and Bella screeched. “CRUCIO!” If the woman couldn’t stay upright, then the Cruciatus Curse it was. The curse dragged on, Bellatrix’s concentration and hatred raised high and pointed solely at Alice Longbottom. The curse dragged on even as the woman became still and she stopped making any noise, her mouth stretched as far as it would allow in a silent scream. 

Rodolphus burst into the room, having left his wife be the entirety of the night. ’Bella, Aurors are here. We have to go.’ But Bellatrix refused to let her concentration waver. Bella, c’mon.’ He demanded, grabbing her by her arm and tugging at her. 

She lost concentration and turned her hateful eyes on her husband. ”Then let them take me. My Lord will come for me and he will praise my efforts!” She proclaimed, for what did she have if not her Lord? In her mind, nothing.


End file.
